Furthermore, our microarray analyses revealed a strong up-regulation of the pro-apoptotic transcription factor ATF3 (table 1), whereas other EGR1 target genes with tumour suppressor function like PTEN, TGFβ1, p53 and fibronectin did not show any significant regulation (additional file 2, table S2). This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and neoplasm.